The present invention relates to data transforming techniques of transforming transaction data among a plurality of business protocols.
The Internet is now prevailing worldwide and is used not only for the transmission/reception of emails and as a browsing means for home pages but also as electronic commerce means between enterprises. In order to realize electronic commerce between enterprises, it is necessary to stipulate in advance standard specifications called business protocols which define the formats and procedures of transaction data to be exchanged in information systems which enterprises have configured for order placing/receiving transactions and the like.
EIAJ-EDI standards by the JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association) and EDIFACT by the U. N. association UN/CEFACT are well known as business protocols used to date. The format of transaction data stipulated by these business protocols has been designed on the assumption that the contents of one order are written in one transaction data set and the contents of a plurality of orders cannot be written collectively in one transaction data set. Therefore, if information of a plurality of orders is to be transmitted at a time, a plurality of transaction data sets each describing each independent order are created and these transaction data sets are transmitted in bundle. In the new trend of electronic commerce between enterprises, business protocols using the transaction data format, XML (Extensible Markup Language), are stipulated one after another. Such business protocols include: PIP (Partner Interface Process) stipulated by the XML-EDI stipulation association for electronic components and semiconductor industries, RosettaNet; ebXML (Electronic Business XML) stipulated by OASIS and UN/CEFACT; and the like. With the format of transaction data defined by these business protocols, it is possible to collectively write a plurality of orders in one transaction data set by repeating XML tags.
Some innovative enterprises have already adopted new business protocols for electronic commerce transactions among enterprises, whereas many enterprises consider to continue electronic commerce transactions for the present time by using already existing information systems which implement conventional business protocols such as EIAJ-EDI standards and EDIFACT. It is therefore desired to realize electronic commerce transactions between enterprises by using transaction data defined by different business protocols.
Methods for realizing electronic commerce transactions between enterprises by using transaction data defined by different business protocols are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,780 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,234.
With the method “Electronic data interchange system for managing non-standard data” of the former U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,780, processes in an enterprise information system are executed by using transaction data of the format specific to the enterprise. On the other hand, for the transfer of transaction data to an information system outside the enterprise, the transaction data of the format specific to the enterprise is transformed into the transaction data of an universal format covering various transaction contents by using a data conversion program of the enterprise. This transformed transaction data is transferred to a partner enterprise. In this manner, electronic commerce transactions between enterprises become possible while allowing transaction data having the format specific to each enterprise to be used by the enterprise.
With “Method and system for providing electronic commerce between incompatible data processing systems” of the latter U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,234, transaction data received by an e-mail from a partner enterprise is transformed into the transaction data having the format specific to an enterprise which received the e-mail. The transformed transaction data is stored in the enterprise and used for processes in an enterprise information system. For the transfer of transaction data to the external information system, the transaction data stored as having the specific format is transformed into the transaction data having the format of the partner enterprise by using a data conversion program provided at the enterprise. The transformed transaction data is transmitted back to the partner enterprises. In this manner, electronic commerce transactions between enterprises become possible while allowing transaction data having the format specific to each enterprise to be used by the enterprise.
With such conventional techniques, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the meanings of data items of transaction data and to transform collective order data of a plurality of products into independent order data of each product and transfer such order data between enterprises. Also with such conventional techniques, it is difficult to transfer information which is lost when order data is transformed but becomes necessary when response data to the order data is transformed.